Climate Policy Speaker Series

NASA's Climate Briefings series is designed to assist the NASA Headquarters community learn about climate and global change issues.

The series is a service of the Science Mission Directorate's (SMD's) Earth Science Division, a significant contributor to national and worldwide technology, measurements, and research in climate and global change to support scientific understanding and inform policy options.

McKenzie Funk, Windfall author, writes about how people around the world are preparing for a warmer planet. He discusses the topic of global warming through the eyes of entrepreneurs, investors, and others who view it as a market opportunity. He profiles those who are already profiting from climate change, from the Sudan to Greenland, from Canada to Ethiopia, and from the Netherlands to Wall Street.

Margaret Henry, Director of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Performance at Sodexo - This presentation describes recent successes in the horizon of public-private partnerships with regard to environmental sustainability.

Paul Fleming is the lead for Seattle Public Utilities’ Climate Resiliency Program. Paul is responsible for leading SPU’s climate research initiatives, assessing climate risks, mainstreaming adaptation and mitigation strategies and establishing collaborative partnerships.

Philip Alcabes, Professor of Public Health and director of the Master of Public Health program at Adelphi University - This presentation describes why it is so difficult to develop firm policy recommendations for protecting the public's health in the face of environmental change. The talk will cover three areas: the interactions between climate and health, the nature of climate policy in relation to predicted changes in the environment, and the problems of studying human health in relation to climate and climate change.

Julia Kumari Drapkin, Lead producer for iSeeChange at KVNF - This presentation is about iSeeChange, a public media project funded by the Association for Independents in Radio (AIR) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, reporting on local environmental change in reverse and turns community questions and conversations with scientists into reported stories that promote opportunities to learn about climate change's efforts on the environment and daily life.

Dr. Poornima Madhavan, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Old Dominion University, Director of its Applied Decision Making Laboratory - This presentation describes human decision making under risk, stress, time pressure, and uncertainty and the intersection of science and public policy.

Dr. Dru Crawley, Director of Building Performance Products at Bentley Systems, Inc - This presentation describes the impacts of various energy practices on comfort conditions, building equipment operation, and daily patters of energy performance and perspectives on climate policy.

Mr. Matthew Banks, Senior Program Officer, World Wildlife Fund Business and Industry Program & Mr. Inge Horkeby, Director of Environmental Affairs at the Volvo Group - Volvo has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to voluntarily reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Learn the science behind partnership, what it means for Volvo, for the manufacturing sector, and for future global emissions.